How Do You Celebrate 60+ Office Birthdays Monthly Without Spending Extra?

Dear All,

I'm looking for no-cost birthday initiatives for celebrating birthdays in the office. Currently, we just send out birthday greetings every day to all associates. Since we celebrate around 60-70 birthdays in a month, please suggest any ideas that can be implemented on a day-to-day basis without involving any extra cost.

Why should you not celebrate on the last day of every month for all the employees whose birthdays fall in that month?

---
This question seems to be asking about the rationale behind not celebrating all the employees' birthdays on the last day of each month. The sentence has been corrected for spelling and grammar errors.

If you are celebrating 60 to 70 birthdays in a month, I am assuming you have 720 employees in the organization. Cost has to be attached; even if you send emailers, cost is attached (time and productivity).

Those whose birthdays fall in the 1st month, celebrate their birthdays on the 1st Saturday of the following month at a set time. Arrange for a get-together and let them cut the cake along with some refreshments. This way, all will get relief from work pressure, and some games and additional activities will be available in the office.

Cake and refreshments for all will cost $15,000 in a year if arranged properly.

Hey,

You could decorate their desk with balloons. Balloons don't cost much, and five balloons can decorate their whole desk. Then, as per Sandee's suggestion, you could celebrate all employees' birthdays in that month on the last date of the month.

Regards,
Priyanka

Dear all,

Please suggest how we can celebrate the birthdays of senior employees such as VPs, AVPs, HODs, CEOs, Chairmen, etc., and what justification or significance can be attached to it. I am looking forward to an early and positive response. Thanks in anticipation.

Regards,
Namrata Jain

You can also take contributions from employees and give them a gift or go for lunch together once a month.

Hi Vinim,

If you give greetings, then you can add a 10/- chocolate with it to add more sweetness to their special day. At the end of the month, you can organize a get-together for half an hour, only for the birthday employee, HR, and anyone from management. During this gathering, you can arrange tea, coffee, cold drinks, and some snacks (as per your budget) like samosas, rasgullas, etc. For this, you can negotiate with a vendor for rates as you may require the snacks every month.

Bharti

Hi Namrata,

You can arrange to deliver a bouquet at their residence on behalf of the entire unit. At the office, you can conduct a tilak ceremony upon their arrival and organize a lunch with all senior staff members. Additionally, you can present him/her with a memento, for example, a God's memento or his/her picture in a large photo frame.

Bharti

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the suggestions, but we already do cut cakes (which are done by the respective teammates), but we wanted to give a personal touch - the HR way! Some of the ideas that came up were to put up a notice board with the Associates' photos, and anyone passing by can write their wishes.

Any other suggestions will be highly appreciated.

Hi Namrata,

Celebrate every weekend on Fri/Sat for those birthdays during the week.

If there are less than 50 staff, celebrate by inviting all staff.

If the company has more than 50 staff, the birthday person may not know everyone. So, invite only 50 people from the entire office whom the birthday person may know personally. If the birthday person knows more than 50 staff, select the first 50 on a lottery basis and invite them.

We often remind our staff multiple times and ask them to assemble in the celebration hall. This causes considerable delays. Restricting to 50 or fewer attendees may help save time for the organizers and staff because for a 15-minute celebration, we would be wasting one hour waiting for everyone to arrive.

Take photos and display them on the company intranet for others to see.

Regarding cost-cutting, budget a Birthday cost for each staff member at the time of joining, similar to how CTC is calculated. Budgeting helps to prevent complaints from the finance department when seeking reimbursement for birthday celebrations.

Wilfred

Hi Namrata,

The cost-effective way is as follows:
1. Send an email to all colleagues so that everyone knows whose birthday it is today.
2. Display the name on the notice board where everyone passes by, ensuring it catches the attention of all.
3. Publish the birthday announcement in the in-house magazine.

Kamran

Hi,

At the end of the month, you should organize a get-together once a month for all the employees whose birthdays fall in that month. You should discuss this matter with your supervisor and invite all senior staff. It should be well-planned and well-managed. By doing this, you can save time and costs and focus better on your daily work. Celebrating birthdays is a very important event in any organization, so make sure to celebrate the birthdays of your employees equally.

Regards,

MINESH Kumari

I think at least every employee can gather and wish that person in chorus, and one sweet box can add more flavor to it.

Regards,
Sarangauri

Hey Vinim,

There is no "HR way" or "Admin way" of celebrating fun. Believe me, the more we link it with something diplomatic, we lose the touch and flavor of celebrating. Have you seen children enjoying birthdays? Just the balloons with small colorful packed gifts are enough for them. Try out simple things and see how many wonders it does. I do remember a similar question was put up at Citehr with wonderful ideas. Give a search on Citehr.

All ideas shared are good, and you can have the same in your basket and implement them by mixing throughout the year. Like every month, you can plan a different thing.

Take it from me... those simple things that bring that extra smile to the birthday boy (or girl) are the best way of celebrating the birthday. Mind you, please do introduce ideas that you can continue doing every month without any budget cuts later for any reason.

Hope this is helpful.

Regards, Ukmitra

Hi there!

We came up with a green idea for this particular problem. Previously, we used to celebrate employees' birthdays with cake cutting. However, having a cake-cutting ceremony every other day became quite boring and unexciting for our employees. As a solution, we decided to discontinue the cake cutting tradition and started gifting a green plant to the employee on their birthday. Each plant comes in a plastic pot (gift-wrapped in a transparent sheet) with a small note that reads "Happy Birthday," signed by the Chairman of the Company.

This new initiative was an instant hit among employees. Now, desks are adorned with green plants, and employees even take them home. Not only is this approach well-received, but it is also cost-effective, with each plant costing around Rs. 50. Give it a try!

Thank you.

Dear Namrata,

For HODS, you can create a collage of departmental snapshots, including all the outings and activities held in the department, and present it to him. These snapshots would be the best memories and can be cherished for a long time.

Hi,

You can display the names on a nice display board at the main entrance in the morning and can create a common distribution list, including email IDs of all employees, to send a birthday mailer every day. If you have some budget, you can also celebrate the birthdays of all employees at the end of the month.

We have a manpower of more than 900 in our department, so we send a mailer and display the names every day, which is appreciated by all our employees.

Regards,
Satpreet

Hi,

One thing you can do is take a color print of all employees whose birthdays fall in that month and display it on the notice board with nice birthday wishes.

Regards,
Sambhaji

What we do is have the cake cutting at the end of each month, wherein whoever's birthday falls within that month will be the one doing it. On the actual date of birth of every employee, we give them greeting cards (costing approximately 7-10 per card) signed by all the other employees of the organization. You can also send him/her an email, copying in senior personnel (which can include all the HODs), so that they can respond on behalf of their teams.

Cheers,
Reema Laalan
Interface Placements
Mumbai

Dear all,

Thank you for your valuable suggestions. I'll surely try them out and will keep you all posted with the response.

With warm regards,
Namrata Jain

Hi,

You can display a banner at the reception or entrance and showcase the names of employees whose birthdays fall on that day. You can even present a small birthday gift according to your budget.

Asmita

I want to know what else we can do in a birthday celebration so that the cake-cutting ceremony doesn't sound monotonous, all while keeping an eye on the time.

Earlier, we have celebrated birthdays just by cutting cake and having a chit-chat, but that doesn't sound interesting. I want the birthday buddy to remember this day, and for this, something special needs to be done. Could you please suggest some type of game or activity that can be played with the employees because they are all very shy.

It's a great culture you're celebrating. This shows that you all are more compassionate, so don't measure your relationships by price. It's a good idea for a celebration, but think of the poor who beg on the roads. My idea is that you have a kitty party on one day and spend the rest of the amount in the birthday boy's name for the needy.

You can make a policy of giving half a day to employees on their birthday so that they can spend some time with their family. It may cost you half a day of lost productivity, but it can result in greater motivation from the employee.